The Forum Daily | Wednesday, October 15, 2025https://immigrationforum.org/

**THE FORUM DAILY**

Officials in Los Angeles County, California, voted to declare a state of emergency in light of continuing federal immigration raids, reports Leah Sarnoff of ABC News [link removed]. 

According to county supervisors, the area is home to more than 3 million immigrants, many of whom are now afraid to leave their homes for work or school. The emergency declaration comes with money for rent relief, legal aid and other resources for those affected. 

In the past couple of weeks, Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) tactics have come under increased public scrutiny, reports Riya Misra of Politico Magazine [link removed].  

Misra interviews John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director, including about what Misra identifies as the "really heavy-handed use of force" some ICE agents are employing. Sandweg also sounds a note of concern as ICE looks to expand rapidly: "I worry that if you start cutting corners on standards or background checks or training, that it’s only a recipe for problems down the line." 

Separately, ICE is now looking to hire analysts to comb through the social media profiles of immigrants and justify deportations, reports Abel Fernández of El País [link removed].  

"Almost anything people post on social media can potentially be used against them," said Alberto Fox-Cahn, attorney and founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP). 

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s VP of strategic communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Marcela Aguirre, Masooma Amin, Jillian Clark and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. 

**IMPACTS** — Immigration enforcement continues to affect various industries nationwide. Construction delays and rising costs in Washington, D.C., are linked to enforcement-related worker shortages, reports Mauricio Casillas of News4 Washington [link removed]. In South Dakota, immigration audits are hurting the dairy industry, Makenzie Huber of South Dakota Searchlight [link removed] reports. "We’ve achieved our goals we set out for ourselves: build a dairy, milk cows and grow the dairy industry in South Dakota," said Dorothy Elliott, co-owner of Drumgoon Dairy. "Is it a sustainable goal if there’s nobody to work on these dairies? No." 

**GUANTÁNAMO** — Nearly 20 migrants were transferred to Guantánamo Bay, restarting operations to hold detainees designated for deportation, reports Carol Rosenberg of The New York Times [link removed]. About 700 migrants have been held temporarily at Guantánamo since February. Civil lawyers filed a lawsuit to stop these detentions, with a hearing before a federal judge scheduled for later this month. 

**AN ALLY'S ARREST** — Despite having a pending asylum case, an Afghan man who supported the United States in Afghanistan was arrested and detained this summer, reports John Woodrow Cox of The Washington Post [link removed]. He expects the Taliban to be waiting for him and his family should he be deported. There should be an alternative [link removed]. 

For more personal stories: 

* Three writers reflect on their own immigration journeys and how the experiences shaped them. (Sofía Pereda, Cleyvis Natera, José Enrique Medina, USA Today [link removed]) 

* In Massachusetts, a 13-year-old boy was arrested and transferred to a detention center 500 miles from his family. (Marcela Rodrigues, The Boston Globe [link removed]) 

**WOMEN AND ASYLUM** — This summer, administration officials ruled that a Salvadoran woman who was being stalked and threatened by gang members did not qualify for asylum under the claim that her persecution was based on her gender, Mary Giovagnoli writes in Ms. Magazine [link removed]. She goes on to explore whether there can be room for gender-based protections based on specific circumstances. The piece is the first in a three-part Series on women, asylum and immigration policy. 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

 

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